The Three Worlds and the Trinity
| The most important aspect of Druidry is the reverence for the Three Worlds. In ancient Ireland, (and in Wales too, so far as we know), oaths were sworn by the Three. These Three Worlds are: The Land of the Dead (Earth), the Land of the Living (Sky), and the Land of the Sidhe (Sea). There was no real understanding of the elements as a system of four in the ancient Celtic world, not as we have them today in other systems of magick, such as Wicca or the Hermetic Tradition. Instead, all was based on the Three--represented by earth, fire, and water, respectively. Air was sometimes coupled with fire in representing the Land of the Living, but that's about as far as it goes, other than the associations given to the Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danaan (which will doubtlessly be discussed elsewhere at a later date). In the ancient Celtic world, virtually everything was based on triads--from the cosmology of the physical and spirit world, to the forms in which the laws were written, and the many bardic triads. Such a trinitarian view of the world doesn't require a great leap to embrace Christianity. As Christians, raised with the image of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (which is the divine female), the cosmology presented by Druidry simply fits. It doesn't take a ton of explanation to see how. It is simply comfortable. If we take this a step further, and understand the Son to represent the earthly plane (God as man), the Father as the plane of the Deities (God as Deity), and the Holy Spirit as the spirit in all things (i.e., nature spirits, faeries, etc.), then the two triads are easily matched. No further leap is required. With this view of the world through threes and collections of threes, the triskele may be adopted as a symbol of either Holy Trinity, whether Druidic or Christian. |
Copyright 2001, CiHela
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